


Just Another Sick Birthday

by sarahgirl1998



Category: Happy Tree Friends
Genre: Birthday, Comedy, Common Cold, Gen, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Sick Character, Sickfic, Sneezing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-12
Updated: 2019-05-12
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:13:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24050377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarahgirl1998/pseuds/sarahgirl1998
Summary: When Lumpy catches an awful cold on his birthday, his friends decide that the best thing to do is give him some tender loving care. Not finished yet.





	Just Another Sick Birthday

“Okay, Sniffles, how’s this look?” Toothy called as he pointed up to the ceiling.

Sniffles moved his head up to look at it. There was a large blue banner on the top of the wall, reading “Happy Birthday Lumpy!” in a darker blue color. Sniffles gave a big smile as well as two thumbs up.

“Absolutely perfect!” said Sniffles. Toothy smiled as well when he heard his comment.

“I’m done decorating the cake! How does it look?” Flaky asked, standing close to the table. She had just finished bringing a two-layer cake into the room, and had just put it on the table. The cake was chocolate flavored, covered with chocolate frosting and had five blue-and-white striped candles right on the top. It was the kind of cake that everyone was sure Lumpy would love.

“Looks delicious!” Sniffles mentioned. He wasn’t just trying to be nice, it really did look delicious. “How much effort did it take to keep Nutty away from it?”

“Um... a lot...” Flaky blushed a little. Close to her, Sniffles could hear Nutty giggling in response to her comment.

“I have the games up and ready!” Cuddles said. “There’s no prizes, but having fun is more important!”

“Yep!” Lifty and Shifty replied. The raccoons had recently decided they weren’t going to steal anything anymore. In fact, they also decided they were going to be a whole lot nicer to all of the Happy Tree Friends, like they were never evil in the first place.

“You’re right,” Sniffles agreed. “I’m gonna go get Lumpy now. He won’t believe what we have in store for him!”

Sniffles went out of the house and ran straight to Lumpy’s house. He was filled to the brim with excitement. This was going to be the best day ever, for him, Lumpy and all their friends. Or was it?

Eventually Sniffles made it to Lumpy’s house, then slowed to a walk and headed to the front door. He pressed his forefinger against the doorbell, letting the chimes play, then removed his finger and waited. Any minute now, Lumpy would head to the front door, open it and the rest would write itself.

But after five entire minutes went by, Lumpy hadn’t come to the door. Sniffles heard no sign of his footsteps or anything from the room that the front door led to.

Sniffles raised an eyebrow in curiosity. Why wasn’t Lumpy answering? He had the kind of doorbell that could be heard from every room in his house. Sniffles knocked on the door a couple of times. Still nothing. Either Lumpy wasn’t home - what were the odds? - or something had happened that kept him from responding to the doorbell.

But since Sniffles had knocked, he placed his hand on the doorknob, turned it and pushed the door open. He was a little surprised that the door hadn’t been locked, but he couldn’t focus on that. He had to figure out what was going on.

“Lumpy?” Sniffles called. “Lumpy!”

He expected to hear Lumpy’s voice, but there was silence. Lumpy probably wasn’t home, but if he wasn’t home, why was the door unlocked? That didn’t make any sense... Or at least, it didn’t to Sniffles.

Then, however, Sniffles looked up to the second floor where the stairs led to. The door to Lumpy’s bedroom was slightly open. Not very noticeable, but a small crack. Sniffles went up the stairs, slowly so as not to break the silence. When he reached the top, he slowly went over to the door.

“Lumpy?” He called again, this time at a normal speaking voice.

He listened for a response, but all he heard were a few wet sniffles. Sniffles recognized the sound and became concerned immediately. He slowly placed his hand on the door and quietly pushed it open.

Lumpy’s room didn’t look like it usually did. Several empty water bottles and balls of used tissue littered the floor, and the waste bin close to the doorway was overflowing with damp tissues. A few empty tissue boxes were sitting on the desk, with a couple more had fallen onto the floor near it. Since when was this room such a mess?

But among it all, someone familiar lay in the bed, turned to the side so that Sniffles couldn’t see his face. Sniffles could already tell who it was - Lumpy.

As Lumpy stayed in bed, he gave a few more audible sniffles. Sitting next to him on his bedside were a couple of tissue boxes, these ones not quite empty yet, with a half empty water bottle sitting on the end table close to the bed.

Sniffles still looked curious at first, but... wait a minute... no, it couldn’t be. His curiosity switched to worry in a split second. Before he knew it, he was standing by Lumpy’s bedside, looking at him and waiting for him to notice his presence.

“L-Lumpy...?” Sniffles asked, trying to get his attention.

Lumpy winced a little, then turned over onto his back. At this point, Sniffles finally got to see his face. But it looked terrible: Lumpy had bags underneath his eyes, and the very end of his nose was a bright red. Lumpy then sat up in bed and sniffled again as he rubbed his eye with one of his hands. Just as he finished, he saw that Sniffles had arrived, and turned to look at him.

“Oh... hey, Sdiffles.” Lumpy’s voice sounded so different, it surprised Sniffles the moment he heard it. Lumpy sounded congested, raspy and extremely groggy.

“Hey, Lumpy...” Sniffles replied, still keeping his worried expression. “Are you... Are you feeling alright?”

“Ndo.” Lumpy shook his head in refusal. “Sdiffles, I dod’t feel so good...”

“That is exactly what I thought you would say,” Sniffles whimpered under his breath.

As Lumpy took another miserable sniffle, Sniffles pointed out, “I think you may have caught a cold...”

Lumpy nodded twice to confirm that. “Yeah.”

“...on your BIRTHDAY?!” Sniffles finished, his eyes widening and pupils shrinking in realization as he finished that.

“I’b afraid I have,” Lumpy said with another nod. He gave the deepest sniffle he could, but regardless of whether he was trying to stop his nose from running or clear it from being stuffy, it just wasn’t working.

“But... You can’t have a cold!” Sniffles denied. “We all have a surprise for you at my house!”

“Ugh...” Lumpy replied. His nose started to twitch and rumble about, with his nostrils flaring up to a slightly larger size.

Sniffles wanted to keep going about how bad a time it was for Lumpy to be like this, but he was distracted by Lumpy’s itchy nose.

“Um... Lumpy? Are you gonna...”

“Ehhhh... Heeeeehhhhhh...” Suddenly Lumpy started to inhale and tilted his upper body back slightly. It was then that Sniffles realized that Lumpy was going to sneeze. Sniffles just had to duck and cover his ears so he wouldn’t be blown out of the room, let alone become deaf for life.

“HiiiiiiiIIIIIIITSHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!” Oh, poor Lumpy, his massive sneeze caused a huge amount of dark green snot to explode right out of both nostrils. That was how bad his cold was.

As soon as he finished the sneeze, Lumpy placed his forefinger underneath his drippy nose. He sniffled loudly and began to rub his poor nose. It was his way of blessing himself if he didn’t want to say it out loud.

Sniffles got up from where he had ducked, eyes still wide and pupils still shrunken, but from disbelief and shock rather than realization. He looked over at Lumpy, not believing what he had just heard in the slightest.

“Oh, my gosh... Gesundheit, Lumpy!” said Sniffles.

Poor Lumpy continued to rub his nose, still sniffling loudly. Despite this, he responded to the blessing. “Th-Thank you...”

Sniffles was glad the sneeze had passed, but he was still worried about Lumpy’s cold. It looked like it was destroying him from the inside out, or at least his nose from the inside out. Sniffles pulled a couple of tissues out from the tissue box next to Lumpy and rubbed them gently against Lumpy’s nose, trying to clean the snot off.

Lumpy couldn’t help but blow into the tissues as he did so. When Sniffles had pulled the tissues away, Lumpy pulled out a tissue himself and wiped his nose, to make up for that blow.

“S-Sorry about that...” Lumpy apologized. “By dose has the worst case of the sdeezes the world has ever seed.”

“It seems like it does, doesn’t it?” Sniffles agreed. “But you know what I think? I think you just have a really, REALLY bad cold.”

“Yeah, that’s probably the case...” Lumpy stated with another sniffle.

“I am so, SO sorry, Lumpy!” Sniffles said in sympathy. “I didn’t know you were gonna get sick, especially not with this bad a cold!”

“Be deither...” When Lumpy said that, his nostrils flared up once again before his breath once again hitched. “Huuuh... Heeeeeehhhhh...”

Sniffles heard the inhales, but this time he stayed calm. He knew what was going to happen: another sneeze was on the way, and he was going to stop it. He placed the side of his forefinger directly underneath Lumpy’s nose.

“Heeeeeh--“ Lumpy stopped inhaling and opened his eyes. The urge to sneeze had been stopped in its tracks, thanks to Sniffles and his lifesaving forefinger as Lumpy referred to it. “Thadk you.”

“Oh, you’re welcome.” Sniffles smiled and removed his forefinger, but just as he did so, he realized the mistake he had made.

“HEEEEEEEETTTTTTSHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! HUUUUUUUUUUUUTTTTTTSHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Aaaaah... HIIIIIIIIITTTTTTSHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!” With the three sneezes, Lumpy once again fired snot from his nostrils. All of the sneezes felt quite painful to release, especially compared to his normal, non-sick ones.

Lumpy sniffled again and rubbed his nose with his forefinger. “Uuuugh. Sorry...” he apologized, the poor moose.

Sniffles looked on in shock, but recovered from it as fast as he could. “It’s fine, Lumpy. And Gesundheit.”

Lumpy smiled, then pulled his forefinger away from his nose after a couple of minutes worth of rubbing. He pulled out a tissue, blew his nose loudly and wiped it repeatedly.

“That being said, I don’t think you’re in good enough condition to go to my house for the surprise,” Sniffles acknowledged. “I’m sorry.”

“But Sdiffles...” Lumpy gave another loud snuffle. “I really wadda dow what it is...”

“Do you think you have enough energy?” Sniffles wanted to know.

“Uh-huh.” Lumpy nodded, although he was probably either lying or didn’t have as much energy as he thought.

“And do you have any more tissues?” Sniffles looked down at all of the used tissues on the floor in the room. He could tell they were crawling with snotty germs that were more than willing to make people sneeze and be miserable. “Because you’ve used quite a lot!”

“Yeah, right here.” Lumpy picked up one of his boxes of tissues that had been sitting by his side. He somehow managed to put it in his pocket before he removed the covers from his body, sat on the side of his bed and stepped out. “I always have lots of tissues.”

“Well, that’s good to hear...” Sniffles stated. “But if you want to feel better, you should take some medicine before you go.”

“I dod’t have ady bore bedicide,” Lumpy stated.

“WHAT?!” Sniffles thought, but didn’t say out loud. There was no possible way he could have said that... Could there?

Sniffles quickly went into the bathroom, threw the door open and flicked on the light. He opened up the medicine cabinet and looked inside for some cold medicine. It was all gone. But Lumpy needed medicine or he wouldn’t stop sneezing, no matter how hard he tried...

“Ohhh, what am I gonna do?!” Sniffles whined to himself in distress. “I can’t go to my lab to make him a cure until he’s already there!”

“HuuuutSHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!” Another massive sneeze from Lumpy, followed by a couple of loud nose blows. Sniffles turned to see Lumpy blowing his nose again into a tissue, to his concern.

“Um, Gesundheit...” Sniffles said as Lumpy wiped his nose. “You really don’t have any more medicine, do you?”

“Ndo, I dod’t,” replied Lumpy. “I took the last of it this bordidg, at about five AM, but it hasd’t started workidg yet, ad gooddess dows whed it’ll work...”

“But it’s almost 10 AM!” Sniffles said. He then took a few deep breaths, trying to calm himself down. His parents had always told him, there was a solution to every problem. That, and deep breathing was a great way to calm down. His strategy worked, and his speaking voice went back to normal. “Lumpy, can I trust you to be careful when we go to our house?”

“I guess so...” Lumpy snuffled.

“But seriously, you really, REALLY have to be careful. There’s no telling how soon it’ll be before others get sick... or especially before I get sick!”

“I udderstadd. Ad I probise,” Lumpy said, truthfully.

Sniffles smiled gratefully at what he’d just said. “I’m so happy you do. Now let’s go!”

Sniffles then headed out of the room and back down the stairs. Lumpy headed downstairs with him, sniffling every step of the way. He was just not feeling like himself. His head was throbbing, his throat felt like he had tonsillitis (minus the swollen tonsils), his legs felt heavy and his nose was always running. Why did this horrible cold have to pick this day, his birthday, of all the days in the world, to infect poor Lumpy? Sniffles felt so bad for him, he wished he never planned his party in the first place.

Sniffles and Lumpy headed out the front door, with Sniffles closing it for Lumpy so he wouldn’t get his germs on it. Then they headed off to Sniffles’ house. Along the way, Lumpy’s sniffling continued, along with the occasional cough that was similar in sound to the cough of people who catch influenza. Otherwise, however, the entire trip was filled with messy sneezes and nose-rubbing from the miserable Lumpy.

“Eeeetshoooooooooo!!! Haaaaaahtshoooooooooooo!!! Hitshhhhhhh--!! Eeeeetshhhhhhhhhhh--!!! Heeeeeeshooooooooooooooo!!! Hiiiiishoooooooooooooo!!! HUUUUUUUSHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! ACHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! HeeeeeeEEEEEET’KSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHOOOO!!!!!” By the time they had gotten there, Lumpy’s nostrils were pouring with germ-filled snot, and even more from that final stifled sneeze. Lumpy rubbed his nose slowly and sadly with his forefinger, with every sniffle he took making a “snork” sound.

“Gesundheit!” said Sniffles, emphatically. “Don’t worry, Lumpy, we’re here.”

Lumpy blew his nose again into a tissue and wiped his poor nose. “Thadk gooddess...”

While Lumpy and Sniffles were heading to Sniffles’ house, Flaky saw them through the window. She gasped in happiness - she didn’t notice how red Lumpy’s nose had been - and went over to her friends.

“Everyone, be quiet! He’s coming!” Flaky said.

With everyone (Flaky, Cuddles, Toothy, Giggles, Petunia, Nutty, Lifty, Shifty, Lammy and Splendid) in the desired positions, Splendid switched off the light.

Sniffles opened the door for Lumpy, went inside as well and stood... somewhere. Lumpy couldn’t tell. As Lumpy stepped in, his heart immediately raced in fear. He hated dark places. There was no telling who - or what - he could find in any dark place in the world. He felt around for a light, finally finding one on the wall. He hesitated for a long, endless moment, then switched it on. But as soon as the light came on...

“SURPRIIIIIIIIISE!!!!!”

Lumpy was so horrified, he had no choice but to scream as hard, loud and long as he could, the way that could only be described as major, crippling fear.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

He didn’t realize this, but everyone’s joy (including that of Lifty and Shifty) turned into shock and concern as soon as he started screaming as hard as he did. They must have scared him far more than they intended to.

When he finally finished screaming, Lumpy’s fur turned a pale white as he silently panted, trying to catch all of the breath that had left his body. Poor baby, it just wasn’t working...

“Lumpy!! I am so sorry!!” Sniffles said. “Are you okay?!”

Lumpy couldn’t speak, having momentarily lost his voice due to his justified scream. He shook his head in denial as tears filled his eyes and snot filled his nasal passages. The poor guy was traumatized out of his mind. Sniffles then went over to Lumpy and gave him a big hug, trying to comfort him.

“Lumpy, I really am sorry!” Sniffles said. “I didn’t think you were gonna scream like that!”

“Neither did I...” Shifty mentioned.

“What were we THINKING?! Now my ears hurt!” said Lifty.

“We’re so sorry, too!” Giggles said.

“I might have scared myself yelling that...” Flaky replied. “I... I am so, so sorry!!”

“Please don’t be mad at us!” Toothy said. “We’re really sorry, all of us!”

“Yes, we are,” Splendid said. “You must forgive us, please!”

“Yeah!” The others replied.

Lumpy didn’t respond. He just stood where he was, sniffling wetly as his nose dripped with snot. He couldn’t speak, at first, until his nose twitched and nostrils flared up. And this time, everyone knew exactly what was going to happen: Lumpy was going to sneeze.

“Aaaaaah... HAAAAAAAAAAAH...” Lumpy inhaled, tilting his upper body back and somehow having regained his voice in the process. But nobody could concentrate on that - he needed to sneeze so badly, he couldn't even describe it. “HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUTTTTTTTSHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!”

Oh, woe was Lumpy; everyone clearly saw a huge amount of snot explode from his poor nostrils with his massive sneeze. The mere sight filled them all to the brim with shock and concern, especially concern.

Having partially lost his breath again, Lumpy raised his forefinger to his nose and rubbed it ever so gently. He didn’t care about the snot; he cared only about consoling his poor red, runny nose now that it had released that monster of a sneeze.

Splendid floated up to Lumpy in worry. “Gesundheit, darling...” Splendid started. “I must admit, you do not look like yourself at all...”

“I dow.” Lumpy continued to rub his nose, his voice arguably even raspier than it had been earlier today.

Splendid placed the palm of his hand on Lumpy’s forehead. But he could already tell from the moment he did that that he was burning up.

“Darling, I think you’ve come down with a fever!” said Splendid.

“Wait, what?! I thought he was allergic to something!” Nutty said.

“Does that look like an allergy to you?” Shifty asked.

Lumpy just sniffled again and rubbed his nose a little more. What would it take to satisfy his nose?

“Um, Lumpy?” Splendid asked, “don’t take this the wrong way, but you should lay down on the couch.”

Lumpy wanted to speak, but didn’t because of how much his poor throat hurt. He simply nodded his head, trudged over to the couch as slowly as possible, and lay down on it just as slowly. He kept sniffling the whole time, poor guy. His nose had never begged for tissues more than Lumpy ever had in his life. Splendid took a large, dark blue blanket and placed it over Lumpy before he patted his head to comfort him.

“S-Splendid! What the heck are you doing?!” Lifty asked.

“For crying out loud, we’re supposed to be celebrating his birthday!” said Shifty. “And having fun!”

“I’m sorry, guys,” Splendid said somberly, not only to Lifty and Shifty, but to everyone other than Lumpy. “As you can see, Lumpy is very sick. It’d be a better idea that we focus more on taking care of him than celebrating his birthday today.”

“Oh, COME ON!” Shifty replied in dismay. “He deserves so much better than this!”

“Yes, but...” Splendid was interrupted when Lumpy started to sneeze again. The mere buildup caught the others off-guard, too.

“Aaaaah... HAAAAAAAH... HUUUUUUUUUUUUTTTTTTCCCCCHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!” Even after releasing another monstrous sneeze that fired a good amount of snot from his nostrils, Lumpy’s nose hadn’t been satisfied. Quick as a flash, he inhaled and exploded again, with no less snot visible. “HAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTSSSSSSSHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!”

Despite his extremely messy sneezes, Lumpy was lucky none of the Happy Tree Friends got sprayed. The chances of that had to be as minuscule as the viruses causing his cold, maybe even smaller. Lumpy rubbed his nose again with his forefinger, looking quite sad as everyone looked at him in shock (including Petunia, who looked quite grossed out).

“Gesundheit!” Lifty and Shifty said, in unison.

“Thanks...” Lumpy said, still rubbing his nose. He pulled out his tissue box, pulled a few tissues out and blew his nose hard. No effect; his nose continued to drip with snot, so he had to wipe his nose after he was done.

“Wow... you really are sick, aren’t you?” Cuddles asked.

“You poor thing!” said Giggles. Lumpy couldn’t help but nod in agreement.

“You know, I can see exactly why you want to take care of him,” Toothy said to Splendid.

“I personally wanted to do that myself,” Sniffles added.

“If we all did our part in taking care of him, I’m sure it will help Lumpy recover even more,” said Splendid.

Lumpy didn’t pay as much attention to his friends’ discussion as he did his poor nose, but he could already tell what was happening. His friends were going to take care of him and help him recover from this torture of a cold. The idea made him smile. It was just... so sweet, so thoughtful... Lumpy couldn’t think of anything they’d done that was quite as nice as that. But then his nose started twitching again, a sign that another sneeze was on the way. He grabbed a tissue and held it in front of his nostrils as he waited for the inevitable.

“Aaaah... Hiiiiiih...” Lumpy inhaled, his nostrils growing and shrinking in size over and over. The rims of his nostrils felt like there were a couple of feathers tickling all over them. A final inhale later, he pressed the tissue against his snout with both hands and stifled the sneeze. “Huuuutchhhhhh!”

A light amount of mucus spurted out of Lumpy’s nostrils as he blew into the tissue with his sneeze. But his nose didn’t feel like it’d had enough relief; it still tickled madly. Lumpy gasped and gave another stifled sneeze into his tissue.

“Aaaatshhhhh!!” Still not enough relief, as the tickle was still there. In fact, the last-minute attempt to keep it from getting too loud actually tickled his nose even more. Before Lumpy knew it, he was releasing stifled sneeze after stifled sneeze.

“Heeetchhhhh! Hitshhhhhh! Haaaatchhhhhhh--! AH-KKKKSSSSSHHHHHHHH!!! Ehhhchhhhh!! Hiiichhhhhhh! Huh...” Lumpy pulled his tissue away from his nose and put it down. He wanted to get another tissue and sneeze into it as well, but he didn’t have any time. He pressed his forefinger underneath his nose, but it didn’t work, and he exploded with the loudest of the stifled sneezes he’d released in the past minute.

“HIIIIIIIHHHHHH-KKKKKKKSSSSSSSHHHHHHHIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!”

A painful sensation ran through Lumpy’s nasal passages with the loud sneeze, and a good amount of snot came out of Lumpy’s nose. And yes, all of the other Happy Tree Friends heard that last sneeze and turned to look at Lumpy. How couldn’t they? Lumpy blushed as he rubbed his nose wistfully with his forefinger.

“S-Sorry...” Lumpy apologized.

“It’s fine, I suppose,” Sniffles replied. “Gesundheit.”

“Thadk you.” Lumpy continued to rub his nose, but then realized it was running. He turned away from Sniffles, pulled out a tissue and blew his nose so it would stop running. He then sighed in relief and wiped his nose, tissue in one hand.

“Um, we know you’re sick and all, but...” Flaky said, sounding a little awkward. “...we’ll let you have some cake and open your presents... if you want...”

“Thadks, but I’d like to do that later.” Lumpy gave another sniffle. “I’b a sdeezidg wreck right dow...”

“Oh, okay.” Flaky reached into her pocket, pulled out a light pink handkerchief - since when did she have one? Did everyone in this forest have at least one of those? Well, at least Lumpy and Sniffles weren’t the only ones who did - and handed it to Lumpy. “Would you like this, in the meantime?”

“Yes, tha-- Aaaaah--” Lumpy suddenly inhaled, took the handkerchief and sneezed into it. This time, he didn’t stifle. “Nntchoooooooooo!”

Flaky cringed in surprise when he released the sneeze, but otherwise blessed him immediately. “Bless you.”

Lumpy rubbed his nose again with his forefinger, giving a couple of stuffy sniffles. “Thadks.” He gave a couple of quick blows into Flaky’s hanky, not wanting to totally soak it with his mucus, but he couldn’t clear his nose. So he pulled the hanky away from his nose, holding it with one hand as he resumed rubbing his nose with his forefinger.

“Oh, my...” Lammy said to herself. “Sorry about your cold, Lumpy. It looks like the worst cold I’ve ever seen!”

“Yeah, it is.” Lumpy gave another sniffle. “It couldd’t have chosed a worse day to visit be, either.” The end of the snout then twitched as he felt another tickle in his nose. He held the hanky in front of his nostrils as he inhaled. “Huh... hiiih...”

But this time, the itch died down, and the urge to sneeze went away as well. Lumpy groaned a little and sniffled loudly as Lammy looked at him in concern.

“I... I thidk it’s...” Another sniffle from Lumpy’s sensitive, itchy nose. “...s-stuck...”

“W-What? Stuck?!” Nutty said, overhearing Lumpy.

“You sure it wasn’t a false alarm?” Toothy asked, and Lumpy nodded to confirm that.

“Don’t worry, Lumpy,” said Sniffles as he walked up to Lumpy. “If you’d like someone to make you sneeze, I’ll definitely help you out.”

“Yes, please,” Lumpy said with a nod.

Sniffles smiled, reached into his pocket and pulled out a feather. Standing as close to Lumpy as he could without getting sick, he tickled Lumpy’s nose a few times with the feather.

“Ugh...” Lumpy sniffled again, but the scent of the feather caused his nostrils to flare up. The end of his nose itched and twitched constantly, but for the sake of letting this sneeze out, he had to resist rubbing his nose. After a few seconds had gone by, Lumpy’s breath began to hitch.

“Ehh... Huuuuh...”

As soon as he heard the inhales, Sniffles stopped tickling his nose and put his feather back in his pocket. He then took a few steps backward and gestured everyone else to do the same. No one was even that close to him, but they still stayed away from Lumpy. He was going to sneeze.

“HaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH--“ Lumpy took a massive breath, tilting his upper body as far back as was possible for him to. His eyes watered, his entire snout twitched uncontrollably, his nostrils flared to several times their normal size, and then, he exploded.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!”

A huge amount of spit and snot were fired from Lumpy’s mouth and nose in perfect unison. By God, that was one of the biggest, loudest and messiest sneezes Lumpy had ever released. The other Happy Tree Friends looked at Lumpy in complete shock and disbelief.

Lumpy recovered from the sneeze, but his red nose was dripping with snot once again. He sniffled loudly and rubbed his nose quite a few times with his forefinger. The sneeze felt good and all, but now he was feeling exhausted and almost completely out of breath.

“Gesundheit, Lumpy!” Sniffles said.

“Th-thadks...” Lumpy replied, although it was barely audible. Out of concern, the others began to bless him as well.

“Bless ya, Lumpy!” said Cuddles.

“Bless you!” Giggles and Toothy said; first Giggles, then Toothy.

“Bless you, Lumpy...!!” Petunia said, trying her best not to freak out after seeing all of that snot come out of Lumpy’s nose the way it did. Everyone understood why it terrified her, however; she hated stuff like that.

“B-bless you!!” Nutty jittered.

“Oh, my... bless you, Lumpy!” Flaky said, shocked out of her mind.

“Gesundheit, darling,” Splendid said.

“Yeah, Gesundheit!” Lifty and Shifty said, in unison.

Lumpy smiled at everyone in response. Even after all of his friends had blessed him, he was still rubbing his nose. “Th-thadk you...” said Lumpy.

Sniffles smiled at him, and then pulled out a little gift bag that he showed to Lumpy. The gift bag was a light blue color with a tag that had Lumpy’s name on it - it was for him.

“Interested?” Sniffles asked.

“Oh, thadk you.” Lumpy sat up, took the gift bag and looked through it, trying to see what was inside. At first, he only felt pieces of tissue paper, but after a few seconds, he found a different object. He grabbed it without damaging it, pulled it out and looked at it.

It was a brand new, unopened box of tissues. Lumpy couldn’t help but smile. This was exactly what he needed.

“Th-thadk you so buch, Sdiffles!” Lumpy said as he looked over at Sniffles. “You are so thoughtful!”

Sniffles smiled as well. “I already had some extra tissues in my bathroom, so that was kind of a last minute gift. But you’re welcome.”

Lumpy put the new box of tissues aside for now, since he needed to use up the tissues he already had first. He took a couple of tissus and blew his nose loudly, clearing it of some of the snot that was inside. He then sighed quietly in relief as he wiped his nose gently with the tissues.

“If you change your mind about the cake or the presents, let us know,” Sniffles said.

“I will, I probise,” Lumpy said. “I thidk I could use a few bore bidutes of rest, though... maybe an hour...”

“It’s alright, Lumpy,” Splendid said.

Lumpy put down his used tissues and lay back on the couch, sniffling frequently. Sniffles placed his hand on his shoulder to comfort him, not knowing he wasn’t sad.

“You can take all the time you need,” said Sniffles. Even though Lumpy wasn’t looking at him, Sniffles could already tell that he was smiling.

He then pulled his hand away from his shoulder as he and the Happy Tree Friends dispersed for the moment. Lumpy stayed on the couch, sniffling and occasionally rubbing his nose. It probably couldn’t decide whether it wanted to be runny or stuffy, but Lumpy had to deal with it either way.

He looked over at the clock on the wall. It was only 11 AM; a little more than an hour since Sniffles had last pointed the time out to him. The others were right, Lumpy did have enough time. But despite this, Lumpy took a deep breath through his mouth and sighed. This was going to be a long day...


End file.
